Sign in with Facebook
Liviu's Reviews > Zaira
Zaira
by
by
Liviu's review
bookshelves: mainstream, read_2012, 2010_release_read, top_25_2010_novels, romanian_language, aq_more_favorites
May 12, 2012
bookshelves: mainstream, read_2012, 2010_release_read, top_25_2010_novels, romanian_language, aq_more_favorites
"Prima călătorie ameţitoare din viaţa mea a fost aceea prin mama. Cînd m-a văzut în braţele mătuşii, cleioasă şi cu ţeasta ascuţită, a ţipat: „Da’ e foc de urîtă!“. Mătuşa a potolit-o, şi-a pus mîinile pe capul meu şi mi l-a modelat cu atenţie. A nimerit-o. E meritul ei că mai tîrziu toţi bărbaţii pe care i-am cunoscut au vrut numaidecît să se însoare cu mine. Poate că unele lucruri ar fi fost mai puţin complicate dacă aş fi avut capul ca un ou. Aş fi acum o fată bătrînă, pe deplin împăcată. Sau neîmpăcată, dar asta n-aş recunoaşte-o nicicum."
From the beginning paragraph (above) to the blow your mind twists at the end - one (the second) maybe predictable to some extent, but the other (the first) just unbelievable and actually so foreshadowed in small details before - the book just sparkles.
The novel is a first person narration by the title character Zaira, born in 1928 and only child of a Romanian well to do ("small boyar") farmer's daughter (who lives and parties in the capital Bucharest with her many lovers) and an army officer (who is away all the time in army camps), raised on the family estate by her Catalan grandmother (the story of how she was bought at 15 by Zaira's grandfather on a business trip to Spain is one of the early highlights of the novel), her physician aunt (whose lawyer husband deserted her on the birth of their son Zizi some 20 years before Zaira's birth) and her cousin Zizi who is now the "man" of the farm after his grandfather dies - though in all important matters the grandmother "bunica" decides
Given a Persian name and growing wild with her cousin who took her with him in his daily farm business from an early age, Zaira suffers an accident when the horse she and Zizi were riding gets injured and in the process kills elder Dumitru, the crier of the estate and earns the permanent hate of his son Dumitru the younger for her family; while confined to bed like Zizi (injured too), her cousin starts making wooden characters and from there it she develops her lifelong love of marionettes and her skills that will later make her one of the most famous practitioner of such in Romania; also "the hands" will become the most important body part for her and she will judge all her men by their hands...
Anyway, the war comes, later communism, the estate is taken away and Dumitru the younger returns as the big shot communist avenger...
Later Zaira marries her childhood friend Paul (who nevertheless earlier spit on her and her family at the ritual humiliation the communists led by Dumitru forced and not only as some did it for pleasure, the estate villagers to offer Zaira's family when the communists came to take the land and evict them) but she does not like his hands and she soon leaves him for a colleague at the marionette theater, Traian who will be the love of her life but who unfortunately is also alcoholic and Zaira (justifiably) has bad memories of such...
And so it goes...
Divided into 4 parts:
"The wild (giddy, dizzy) ride begins"
"Cheating men"
"Escape with the cat"
"An American life"
the novel is just astounding and after the twists at the end definitely requires a second reading to see how masterfully the author inserted the clues
Definitely a top 25 novel of the year and depending on how it will stay in my memory, it could be even #1
From the beginning paragraph (above) to the blow your mind twists at the end - one (the second) maybe predictable to some extent, but the other (the first) just unbelievable and actually so foreshadowed in small details before - the book just sparkles.
The novel is a first person narration by the title character Zaira, born in 1928 and only child of a Romanian well to do ("small boyar") farmer's daughter (who lives and parties in the capital Bucharest with her many lovers) and an army officer (who is away all the time in army camps), raised on the family estate by her Catalan grandmother (the story of how she was bought at 15 by Zaira's grandfather on a business trip to Spain is one of the early highlights of the novel), her physician aunt (whose lawyer husband deserted her on the birth of their son Zizi some 20 years before Zaira's birth) and her cousin Zizi who is now the "man" of the farm after his grandfather dies - though in all important matters the grandmother "bunica" decides
Given a Persian name and growing wild with her cousin who took her with him in his daily farm business from an early age, Zaira suffers an accident when the horse she and Zizi were riding gets injured and in the process kills elder Dumitru, the crier of the estate and earns the permanent hate of his son Dumitru the younger for her family; while confined to bed like Zizi (injured too), her cousin starts making wooden characters and from there it she develops her lifelong love of marionettes and her skills that will later make her one of the most famous practitioner of such in Romania; also "the hands" will become the most important body part for her and she will judge all her men by their hands...
Anyway, the war comes, later communism, the estate is taken away and Dumitru the younger returns as the big shot communist avenger...
Later Zaira marries her childhood friend Paul (who nevertheless earlier spit on her and her family at the ritual humiliation the communists led by Dumitru forced and not only as some did it for pleasure, the estate villagers to offer Zaira's family when the communists came to take the land and evict them) but she does not like his hands and she soon leaves him for a colleague at the marionette theater, Traian who will be the love of her life but who unfortunately is also alcoholic and Zaira (justifiably) has bad memories of such...
And so it goes...
Divided into 4 parts:
"The wild (giddy, dizzy) ride begins"
"Cheating men"
"Escape with the cat"
"An American life"
the novel is just astounding and after the twists at the end definitely requires a second reading to see how masterfully the author inserted the clues
Definitely a top 25 novel of the year and depending on how it will stay in my memory, it could be even #1
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Zaira.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
May 12, 2012
–
Started Reading
May 12, 2012
– Shelved
May 12, 2012
– Shelved as:
mainstream
May 12, 2012
– Shelved as:
read_2012
May 13, 2012
–
Finished Reading
May 28, 2012
– Shelved as:
2010_release_read
May 28, 2012
– Shelved as:
top_25_2010_novels
May 29, 2012
– Shelved as:
romanian_language
November 20, 2019
– Shelved as:
aq_more_favorites
